Airman

The dining table in Jim Jacobs' modest apartment has become a shrine to his fallen daughter. Dozens of photographs depict the personal moments in the life of U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Tara Brown: a well-worn photo of a little girl and her brother sitting in Santa Claus' lap; a church choir performance in New York; Polaroid photos of her first trip to Walt Disney World; basic training in Texas. And most recently a party at her Maryland home to celebrate her wedding and latest deployment to Afghanistan.

OAKLAND, Calif. - If Orlando Magic forward Tobias Harris ever needs inspiration, he never has to look outside his own family. His 90-year-old grandfather, Lt. Col. John Mulzac, is a role model. In 1942, when the armed forces were segregated, Mulzac joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. He became one of America's first black military pilots, a group known as the Tuskegee Airmen. "He always told us as kids that we could do anything in this world if we put our mind to it," Harris said, a smile on his face.

Air Force Airman 1st Class Shawn P. Ohagan has completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He is the son of Tom and Gloria Ohagan of Yalaha. He earned his associate's degree in 2004 from Lake-Sumter Community College in Leesburg. SOLDIER SENT TO IRAQ Army Pfc. Camille L. Canady has been sent to duty in Iraq. Canady, a signal support systems specialist, usually is assigned to one of the camps and units of the 2nd Infantry Division, 8th U.S. Army in South Korea.

Retired Senior Chief Petty Officer Sid Busch plans to run next Sunday's Disney Marathon with an American flag in his hands and a photo of a fallen airman on his back. Busch, 67, thinks it's the least he can do for the memory of Air Force Senior Airman Tre Porfirio, who died at age 22, a year after he was critically wounded in Afghanistan. Busch will participate in the 26.2-mile race through Disney parks with Porfirio's picture pinned to his running shirt. "It's not about me," he said.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- A deputy sheriff who was videotaped shooting an unarmed Iraq war veteran after a car chase will be charged with attempted voluntary manslaughter, authorities said Tuesday. Deputy Ivory J. Webb, 45, will remain on paid administrative leave during the investigation into the shooting of Air Force Senior Airman Elio Carrion, 21. Carrion was shot in the chest, shoulder and thigh and was hospitalized for several days.

TOKYO -- Police on the southern island of Okinawa arrested Saturday a U.S. serviceman suspected of arson. The 22-year-old airman was seen setting fire to two cars in a parking lot on Okinawa City early this morning and arrested by police on the spot, said Yasunori Machi, an official with Okinawa prefectural police. The suspect was identified as Fernando Rivera Blanes, an airman stationed at Kadena Air Base.

TOKYO -- A U.S. airman stationed in Japan surrendered to police Saturday after an early morning hit-and-run incident that killed a 72-year-old Japanese woman, police said. Police in Tachikawa, a western suburb of Tokyo, identified the airman as Pfc. Jon M. Mills, a 24-year-old enlisted man stationed at Yokota Air Base. They did not give his hometown. After questioning Mills, police arrested him on charges of professional negligence resulting in death. Mills is suspected of hitting Chiyoko Nakamura while driving through Tachikawa back to the base about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

NAHA, Japan -- A court convicted a U.S. airman today of raping a Japanese woman and sentenced him to 32 months, concluding a case that deepened resentment toward U.S.troops stationed in Okinawa. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland went on trial last September after being charged with raping the 20-year-old woman in a parking lot outside a popular Okinawa nightclub June 29.

An airman stationed at this base in the Florida Panhandle has died after a workout following a military boxing tournament in Texas.Michael J. Butler, 20, of Springfield, Ill., collapsed Thursday and died Saturday at Wilford Hall Hospital on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, according to a news release. It listed acute subdural hematoma, a blood clot near the brain, as apparent cause of death.Butler, assigned to Eglin's 46th Test Wing, was a member of the Air Force Boxing Team.

An Air Force panel sentenced an airman to 75 days of hard labor for stealing a Ronald McDonald statue. ''I wish I would have never thought of this stupid idea,'' reservist Tony A. Villarreal said after his court-martial. Villarreal, 20, said he stole the statue from a McDonald's restaurant in Biloxi May 14 and drove it to California, where he left it with friends. He had planned to put it in a raft off California's Santa Monica pier. Military investigators found the $2,350 statue on May 22. It was returned to Biloxi on an Air Force flight.

Authorities are releasing new information and pictures in the cold case murder of Pamela Cahanes, a Navy airman apprentice who was killed in 1984. The newly-formed Seminole County Cold Case Working Group reopened the investigation into Cahanes' murder Monday and announced a $5,000 Crimeline reward. The team of local, state and federal law-enforcers met in Sanford to review its first case. Cahanes was a 25-year-old Navy airman apprentice who was last seen at the Navy Training Center in Orlando in August 1984.

Military officials say an Air Force officer died after he was struck by a boat during ocean survival training at a Panhandle Navy Base. The Air Force told the Northwest Florida Daily News on Thursday that Maj. Garrett Knowlan was struck by a boat in Pensacola Bay last week during a training exercise focused on how to survive after parachuting into water. Knowlan was stationed at nearby Eglin Air Force base and piloted the CV-22 Osprey. The military says his death is under investigation.

HAMPTON — A Hampton man pleaded guilty Tuesday in the death of a 22-year-old Air Force airman killed last year. Marcus Wingate, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a firearms charge in the shooting death of Richard Glenn Redick Jr. As a part of the plea agreement, Wingate was sentenced to eight years in prison. Redick was a senior airman stationed at Ellsworth Air Force base in South Dakota. Redick — a graduate of Woodside High School who attended Norfolk State University , according to his obituary — was in the area visiting his wife and son. Redick and Wingate got into an argument around 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 31, 2011, at the Langley Square Apartments, on Doolittle Road, off North King Street.

George Hickman, one of the few surviving Tuskegee Airmen , and a longtime usher at University of Washington athletic events and press box attendant at Seahawks games, died on Sunday. He was 88. Hickman's death prompted a wave of condolences among local sports figures. Always humble and always smiling, he was beloved among local sports fans and media members alike. "I was just doing my duty to the best of my ability, to be the best that I could be" Hickman said of his experience fighting in World War II . "And I loved it and enjoyed it. And I wanted to get over there and stop Germans from being over here.' Hickman, who admitted to having been spit on while in uniform because of his race, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal with other Tuskegee Airmen in 2007.

POLK CITY — Daniel Keel of Clermont, who was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen from World War II, will appear today and Saturday at the Fantasy of Flight attraction. Keel was the topic of a column last Saturday by the Orlando Sentinel's Darryl E. Owens, who had just seen the new movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, "Red Tails. " Owens wrote that the 89-year-old was "disappointed that many young blacks have lost touch with the ideals that helped his fellow airmen succeed.

Mourners of Airman 1st Class Matthew Ryan Seidler said the Westminster man had followed his dream of serving his country, found a band of brothers in the Air Force and died protecting his fellow soldiers in Afghanistan . "When we talked to him New Year's Day , it was the happiest that he had ever been in his life," his father, Marc Seidler, told the more than 500 mourners who filled the Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home Tuesday in Pikesville . "He loved the Air Force.

An Air Force enlisted man sought in the shooting death of his wife at a South Carolina air base was arrested in a Texas border town, police said Wednesday. Airman Jeromy Willis, 23, was charged with killing his wife at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base on Jan. 4. Police detectives went on the TV program America's Most Wanted on Friday to generate leads on Willis' whereabouts. Marie Willis, 30, was shot twice while waiting in a base conference room to be interviewed about alleged abuse, authorities said.

Lightning hit a parked Air Force gunship while a maintenance crew was working on it Thursday, killing one airman and injuring eight others.The AC-130H Spectre was in a maintenance area at the base near Fort Walton Beach in the Panhandle when the bolt struck at 9:40 a.m., said Staff Sgt. Mike Spaites.Airman 1st Class John Vincent, 25, of Omaha, Neb., died at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center. He was a crew chief with the 16th Aircraft Generation Squadron.Three of the injured were treated and the other five were in stable condition at the base clinic.

Dean E. Collins captured his Danish mother-in-law's heart with an American candy bar — and ultimately won over his wife when they first met after World War II. Collins, who lived in Longwood, died on Wednesday after a heart attack. He was 83. Stationed in Germany, Collins decided to take a weekend trip to Denmark's capitol of Copenhagen. He was trying to communicate with a pastry shop waiter, who didn't speak English, when his future wife walked in with her mother and 8-year-old sister.

The dining table in Jim Jacobs' modest apartment has become a shrine to his fallen daughter. Dozens of photographs depict the personal moments in the life of U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Tara Brown: a well-worn photo of a little girl and her brother sitting in Santa Claus' lap; a church choir performance in New York; Polaroid photos of her first trip to Walt Disney World; basic training in Texas. And most recently a party at her Maryland home to celebrate her wedding and latest deployment to Afghanistan.